Shattered (Casey book)

*Shattered*

Author	Kathryn Casey
Language	English
Genre	True crime, Biography
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	2010
Pages	384 pp (Paperback ed)
ISBN	0-06-158202-6
OCLC	2010484377

Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder, by author and novelist Kathryn Casey, is a true crime account of the killing of a pregnant woman whose body was discovered in 1999 in an upstairs closet in her home in Katy, Texas, near Houston. The book was published by HarperCollins in June 2010.

Case information

Belinda Lucas and David Temple dated as classmates at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. David became a high school coach, and Belinda a teacher. They married and had one child, a boy. On January 11, 1999, when their son was 3 years old, Belinda, 30 years old and eight months pregnant with their second child, was killed by a single gunshot blast to her head. The weapon, a 12-gauge shotgun, was never found.

The case remained long unsolved; eventually the investigation revealed a history of cruelty and domination by Belinda’s husband, a respected member of his town’s close-knit community.

The prosecutor on the case was Kelly Siegler, later the star of the TNT Network's reality TV show Cold Justice.

Despite being represented by Dick DeGuerin, a renowned Texas defense lawyer, David Temple was convicted of murder in the deaths of his wife and unborn baby girl in November 2007. Belinda had planned to name their daughter Erin.^[1] He was sentenced to life in prison, to be eligible for parole after 30 years. He has appealed the conviction.^[2]

In July 2015, Judge Larry Gist, after reviewing nearly three months of witness testimony in a hearing, ruled that David Temple should be granted a new trial based on Brady violations by the prosecutor (Siegler). Brady delineates the prosecutor's duty to supply evidence to defense attorneys.

In November 2016, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed and ordered a new trial for Temple. In their ruling, the court rejected claims of actual innocence and ineffective assistance of counsel, yet agreed with Gist that Siegler, as the prosecutor, failed to turn over evidence in a timely manner, and that this delay may have hampered the defense's ability to effectively defend Temple. In its ruling, the court wrote: "Most of the Brady evidence about which Applicant complains was contained within the several hundred pages of police reports that were not provided to defense counsel until some time during the trial. ...A prosecutor who errs on the side of withholding evidence from the defense runs the risk of violating Brady if the reviewing court ultimately decides that it should be turned over. The habeas judge found, and we agree, that this prosecutor's misconception regarding her duty under Brady was 'of enormous significance.'" ^[3]

The appeals court then ruled that the guilty verdict from the original trial be set aside, and that Temple be granted a new trial. ^[4]

Reception

The book has stayed on Amazon.com's Top 100 bestseller list since its release in June 2010.^[5]

Crime Magazine wrote that "Casey brings all the participants in this tragedy, both heroic and villainous, vividly to life."^[6] The Daily Sentinel called the book a "heartbreaking story of the murder of a young pregnant mother and a frustrating investigation... ."

‘’Shattered’’ made the Book of the Month Club listing upon its release.^[7] It also made Doubleday’s Book Club under the true crime and drama genres.^[8]

CBS News’ “48 Hours Mystery” covered the case in a December 2008 segment titled “A Guessing Game."^[9]

CBS News "48 Hours" series followed up on the case in March of 2016, the episode is titled "Playing by the Rules?".^[10]

References

External links

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